Writer, musician, and phone geek.
Find my iOS themes in Cydia: ClearHighNotifications, ClearLowNotifications, GmailSMS, LS Nimbus Wide, LS Frost for iPhone 5, ClearNotifications, and TypoClockClear.
Find my iOS themes in Cydia: ClearHighNotifications, ClearLowNotifications, GmailSMS, LS Nimbus Wide, LS Frost for iPhone 5, ClearNotifications, and TypoClockClear.
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Posts tagged "maps"
A hilarious look at some of the worst map disasters of iOS 6.
With early reviews trickling in, most writers are singling out Apple’s new in-house Maps app (which replaces the Google-powered version used in previous software versions) as the weakest point of iOS 6 and the new iPhone 5. No doubt it will get better with time, but right now it seems like Cupertino rushed this one out.
The iPhone goes HAL 9000: You might want to be careful with those new turn-by-turn directions.
As I followed along with gdgt’s liveblog of the WWDC keynote today, I was excited to see that Apple would finally be bringing turn-by-turn directions to iOS devices. After years of hearing Android fanboys snicker at the lack of a seemingly basic maps function, iPhone users would have their own built in directions feature with iOS 6.
But not every iPhone user, it turns out, and not by a long shot.
Apple, much like it did with Siri when releasing the iPhone 4S, has limited the turn-by-turn functionality (and the Flyover feature) to newer devices: only the 4S and iPad 2 or later will be granted the newer service.
There are a lot of iPhone 4 users out there—many of us still under contract—who are going to feel not only left behind by Apple, but worse: when there are apps available right now in Apple’s own App Store that, free of charge, offer turn-by-turn functionality for our devices, we’re going to feel cheated.
Business Insider has an interesting take on why we haven’t seen turn-by-turn directions yet in Apple’s native Maps app for iOS: it could be that they simply aren’t allowed to do it.
It’s hard for us to remember sometimes that despite an overabundance of cash and know-how, Apple still relies on Google for their map data; Ed Lu—who did some work for Google when it launched its own map project—suggests that the agreement between the two tech giants precludes Apple from offering turn-by-turn directions, since it would compete with one of Google’s own flagship services:
“…Google couldn’t include turn-by-turn directions on Android phones until it had control of its own mapping database. The companies that provide databases wouldn’t let Google do it, because it was a threat to their business.”
Of course, all signs point to Apple launching their own mapping service very soon—at which point we will likely see turn-by-turn directions finally landing on iPhones. With a bit of luck, we’ll know more after WWDC next week.
